From Brazil, China challenges Elon Musk

The Shanghai company SpaceSail wants to reach remote areas of Brazil thanks to an alternative constellation to Starlink that it will put into orbit in the coming years. The Latin American country currently depends on the services offered by Musk’s company, but in recent months tensions had already arisen with the Supreme Court.

Beijing (/Agencies) – Beijing is preparing to challenge Elon Musk with satellites: the Chinese company SpaceSail signed a memorandum of understanding a few days ago with the Brazilian state telecommunications company, Telebras, for the supply of high-band Internet services wide while Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Latin America is underway.

After participating in the inauguration of a Chinese megaport and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum in Peru, Xi traveled first to Rio de Janeiro for the G20 leaders’ conference and was then received yesterday in Brasilia, the capital , by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Both presidents signed 37 bilateral agreements in different sectors “through which we strengthen our cooperation for the next 50 years in areas such as sustainable infrastructure, energy transition, artificial intelligence, digital economy, health and the aerospace sector,” declared the Brazilian president in a press conference.

SpaceSail offers to guarantee Internet connection in remote areas of Brazil thanks to a satellite constellation currently under construction (called Qianfan or “Thousand Sails”) made up of thousands of satellites that will operate in low Earth orbit (which reaches up to 2 thousand kilometers from the planet’s surface). According to estimates, this network of probes will be operational from 2026. Last year almost 6 million people They still didn’t have access to the Internet in Brazil due to lack of technological capabilities, high costs and, to a minimal extent, lack of available services.

The partnership between SpaceSail and Telebras marks the first great success of the Chinese company which, as stated in WeChatis in trade negotiations with more than 30 countries. In this way Brazil – which according to the French newspaper Le Monde has granted SpaceSail access to the Alcántara Satellite Launch Center – hopes to reduce its dependence on Starlink, owned by SpaceX, already active in more than 100 countries and which holds 46% of the Brazilian national market.

In recent months, Musk – who will be part of the new US administration when Donald Trump assumes the presidency on January 20 – had been involved in a legal dispute with the Brazilian Supreme Court for having refused to name a legal representative in the country. and for not removing some accounts that had deliberately spread false information and hate speech. Starlink was forced to pay a series of fines or lose its license to operate in Brazil.

Last month a Brazilian delegation visited SpaceSail’s headquarters in Shanghai. “I was impressed and excited by the new technologies that SpaceSail can bring to Brazil,” he wrote – in a post on x – the Brazilian Minister of Communications, Juscelino Filho. And in reference to the recent agreement, he stated: “We are working so that Brazilian society has the possibility of choosing between more than one company that offers a service that is currently essential and fundamental for the population, especially in remote areas.”

According to Chinese state media, the goal of SpaceSail, which also operates under the name Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology, is to launch 15,000 space probes by 2030. The company obtained $925 million in financing from the Chinese government in February, and so far It has launched two batches of 18 satellites, one in August and another in October, but hopes to have more than 600 in orbit by the end of 2025.

The Chinese government has repeatedly noted Starlink’s role in defending Ukraine against Russia. Indeed, satellite technologies also have potential applications in the military field and several weapons manufacturers have begun to focus on launching satellites into space. The Brazilian Armed Forces are also Starlink customers.

Qianfan, however, is just one of the Chinese projects that aim to challenge Starlink in conquering the orbits around the Earth (already crowded according to experts, with at least 9,000 satellites in the layers closest to the Earth, a number that, according to forecasts, will rise to 40,000 in 2030). The China Satellite Network Group, for example, has developed the Guowang network, also known as SatNet, which in the future will consist of 13,000 satellites. Although it has not yet begun to build it.

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